


Midnight Glow

by svtvevo



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2019-01-04 19:13:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12174957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/svtvevo/pseuds/svtvevo
Summary: If Seungcheol were to look in the dictionary for the definition of “hard working,” he would most certainly see Jihoon’s face in the entry.Or, Seungcheol realizes something he should have realized a long time ago.





	Midnight Glow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blehgah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blehgah/gifts).



> Hi!!! I really hope you like this hahaha. It didn't turn out as cute as I hoped it would be, but I hope you still like it!!!! Thanks for the cute prompt!! :D

If Seungcheol were to look in the dictionary for the definition of “hard working,” he would most certainly see Jihoon’s face in the entry.

Contrary to the sight he’s seeing on the couch, the face in the entry would probably be a hard scowl looking down on the sheets and sheets of torn out pieces of notebook paper as it scatters the floor around the sound area. There’d probably be a pencil in his hand. There would most certainly be shadows under his eyes. 

And Seungcheol? He’d probably stare at that definition for a longer time than necessary. 

Jihoon is peaceful, sleeping soundly on the worn out leather couch of the recording room, where he’s been since some ungodly hour of the early morning. If Seungcheol could, he’d let him sleep on and dream about the next installment of the “falling in love with a girl” storyline. But right now, they have a schedule coming up in the next few hours. By “next few hours” it’s actually “in the next thirty minutes” because wardrobe, and makeup, and travel time… ugh. So he’s got no choice but to wake up the blond, and hope that the coffee in his hand is sufficient enough apology.

“Jihoon. Jihoon-ah.” Seungcheol shakes him gently, trying to coax him up. “Woozi. Woooooozziiiii. Wooooooozzzziiiii-”

“Shut up, Seungcheol,” Jihoon's voice is thick, laced with sleep and drowsiness. “I’m here.”

The leader raises an eyebrow at that. “Where’s here?”

His friend pauses for a few seconds, no doubt trying to gather himself and escape with a few more minutes. “In my room?”

“Wrong answer.” Seungcheol sighs. “But I wish.” 

A hand flies up into the air, and Seungcheol grabs at it, pulling the vocal unit leader so he’s sitting up on the couch as opposed to laying down. His friend looks blearily around the room adjusting his eyes to the light. Seungcheol takes the time to analyze his appearance. Jihoon’s perfectly styled hair from yesterday is messed up and mussed, to the point of slightly frizzy (Hopefully the hairstylists won’t go too crazy on the hairspray), and his makeup is smeared slightly on the side he’d been sleeping on. And according to the deep imprints on the side of Jihoon’s face, it was a hell of nap.

“What are you staring at?”

Seungcheol smiles at the tiredness in Jihoon’s voice. He works too hard for his own good. “How stupid you look today.” 

Jihoon scoffs, throwing the pillow he’d been sleeping on to Seungcheol. The other barely has time to raise the coffee over his head before it smacks him square in the face. “Shut up and give me the americano.” He says, raising his hand to Seungcheol. He hands it over, and Jihoon takes a sip through the straw, closing his eyes as he does so. 

Ah. He’s so cute.

Jihoon moves his feet down to the floor, and Seungcheol sits beside him, leaning his back into the couch. Comfortable silences like these don’t come very often in between schedules and despite the team’s constant, loud energy, there are days when it just feels… too much. Having the triple role to be leader, dad, and friend to these guys wasn’t a burden, per se. But sometimes the pressure gets to be too much, and all he needs is silence. That’s all.

Unsurprisingly, Jihoon seems to notice it best out of everyone when he does need it. They’ve been friends for years and years, after all. They can read each other better than they let on. Their ambitions have coincided from day one, and honestly, Seungcheol can’t imagine this journey being this successful without the blond by his side. It’s comforting. 

“You’re thinking pretty loudly, Seungcheol.” Jihoon sips noisily through the straw. “Penny for your thoughts?” He asks, shaking the cup as he does so. It rattles emptily with ice.

“Nah.” He laughs. The leather of the couch feels good. “Just being a sap.”

“Aw. How sweet. Now you really have to tell me so I can put that in a song.” Seungcheol laughs harder at the offhanded comment. “I’m serious! Ideas don’t come easy, despite what you think.”

The leader stops the urge to roll his eyes. “I know they don’t come easy, you always complain to me whenever they don’t.” 

“Well, you know, just telling you again. So that if you ever think about nagging me about it, you know.” Seungcheol can practically hear Jihoon pouting at this point. “What’s the schedule?”

“Radio show with NCT.”

“Is that it?” Jihoon sighs in relief. “Oh thank god. I thought there was some performance that no one told me about.”

“I mean,” Seungcheol muses. “There might be. We might have to do some cover for a song. But nothing like… full blown.”

Jihoon scoffs at that. “I sincerely hope so. I don’t think I can function all that well after last night.”

“Oh?” Seungcheol raises an eyebrow at that. “What happened?”

The sound of ice hitting ice stops suddenly, and Seungcheol opens his eyes to look at his friend. His smile is… sad. Resigned, even. “It’s ah, nothing.” he stares back at the cup, shaking it a little more. “Just a bad dream.”

Before Seungcheol can comment, Jihoon stands up, stretching his hands to the ceiling. Seungcheol can’t help but draw his eyes to the strip of stomach just above Jihoon’s… wait.

“Are those my boxers?” Seungcheol asks, trying to contain the sound of his beating heart. 

For the second time that morning, Jihoon scoffs, and it’s a rough sound in his throat. “Obviously.”

They’re a distinct, garrish magenta and bright striped pattern, a gag gift by Jun so “Our leader finally knows which underwear is his.” As much as he had laughed, he never thought they’d be used in this situation. In a terribly distracting, terrible, situation.

“Well… uh… ok.” He stammering. Seungcheol knows he’s stammering, and Jihoon is noticing. “I’m going to go… make sure the other members are ready… and stuff…”

“And stuff?” Jihoon raises an eyebrow. “What else is there to do?”

“The manager wants to… talk to me I’ll see you later bye!” And Seungcheol is out the door, trying to make it look more like he’s late and less like him wondering what the hell is going on and why Jihoon would be wearing his stuff.

And why is Jihoon wearing his things? He’s usually not like that. Or maybe he is? There was the one time they wore similar jean jackets to a vlive, but that was entirely coincidental. Was it? Was it not? Maybe he’s overthinking this. He probably is overthinking this. Maybe Jihoon was searching around the emergency stash of clothes they keep in here when they have too much to do to go back to the dorm and he mistook his boxers as shorts instead? Is Seungcheol that thick? Oh god.

Seungcheol shakes his head out of his stupor. This is dumb. He’s overthinking this. He’s overthinking this, and there’s a reason why Jihoon is wearing his boxers.

Seungcheol just doesn’t know what that reason is yet.

 

\---

But he can’t get it out of his head. 

The leader had made sure to stay away from Jihoon. He sat in a different car, fast walked all the way to the studio, and much to Jaehyun and Youngho’s surprise, sat himself right beside them, next to the glass viewing wall so that Jihoon couldn’t sit next to him. He’s being shady, yes, and Jihoon’s probably also noticed, yes. But his mind is a mess and he can’t let that show, so there he went and here he is.

It’s a weird position to be in. 

The show started about twenty minutes ago, and after all their introductions, Seungcheol hasn’t said a word. He’s too busy trying not to imagine a domestic life with his best friend(slash)crush of one year , and trying not to show it, too. He’s not… frustrated? More like… he’s upset, he supposes. As though he knows it’s something he can’t have. 

“Hey S.Coups!” Youngho calls out to him in english. 

Seungcheol smiles at the greeting. “Wassup Johnny!” he responds, matching his enthusiasm. The studio laughs at the exchange between the two.

After Youngho calms down, he switches his language back to korean. “Ah… sorry to catch you off guard like that man. You seem kind of spacy! Is something up?”

Oh shit. Maybe he was being too obvious. “Nah, nah it’s just our comeback.”

Jaehyun nods in affirmation. “Ah, I can understand that. It’s always so stressful, especially with such an interesting group like yours! Do you know what your concept is going to be this time around?”

“Um, excuse me,” Seungkwan interrupts. “You’re not getting any details from us that easily.” The studio breaks out into giggles once more, Jaehyun shaking his head in shame.

“Ah, I should have known better than to try that. But can’t we have at least one hint? Please?” Jaehyun pleads teasingly.

Hm. Should he? Seungcheol can practically feel the anticipation from through the glass of the radio station, and while he loves their fans, he also knows that surprise is always fun-

“It’s about a lost love.” A voice rings out. Seungcheol’s head turns to look in the voice’s direction, and his eyes go wide as he realizes Jihoon is speaking into the microphone. “Somewhere along the way, something went wrong, and now they’re separated. They could have had it all, but they were too afraid to do something about it. The end.”

Jihoon leans back from the microphone, and takes a look around the room. It’s stunned to silence. Seungcheol swears that the blond’s eyes linger on him before finally turning back to the microphone and laughing hysterically. “Just kidding! It’s a secret. I can’t believe you all fell for it!”

And just like that, the energy in the studio goes up like a rocket, and Jihoon’s getting chastised by everyone, Seokmin demanding they do a punishment game for scaring everyone like that. 

But in the midst of it all, Seungcheol’s eyes are trained on Jihoon, wondering what the hell just happened. 

\---

He’s back at the recording studio. 

Seungcheol doesn’t know how he got there, honestly. One minute he was in the car, the next, his feet took him to the room where it all started. It’s been a frustrating day, but for reasons he can fathom.

Or rather, he can fathom, but doesn’t want to. It’s a weird and vicious cycle. Like Jihoon? Don’t like Jihoon? 

Jihoon. 

He’s been in his head since he woke him up this morning, and it’s… distracting. For some reason seeing Jihoon in his boxers awakened something in Seungcheol, a sleeping pile of mush and feelings that suddenly have sprouted as though it were a volcano waiting to erupt. And has erupted. Now suddenly, Seungcheol is faced with a mess he could have avoided if he just kept it inside. 

There’s a click of the door opening, and Seungcheol cracks an eye open before shutting it very tightly once more as Jihoon steps into the room. A few moments later, he’s sitting on the couch, and everything feels awkward all over again. At least, to Seungcheol. Maybe Jihoon’s feeling it too? He has no idea.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Seungcheol laughs at that. “I think it’s going to cost you more than a penny this time.”

Jihoon hums, and there’s a telltale sound of ice and liquid against plastic. “How about an iced coffee?” There’s a sudden, cold touch against his leg, and Seungcheol looks down to see that the drink has been placed on his knee, the condensation from the cold dampening his jeans. His line of sight follows the hand that holds it, only to see Lee Jihoon, staring earnestly up at him. It’s a little maddening, to see him be so calm. Of course he is. He doesn’t have a massive crush on his best friend. 

Wordlessly, Seungcheol takes the coffee. It’s a little sweet, but more so bitter than sweet. It works somehow. He didn’t realize how much he needed it until he actually drank some of it. And again, they’re plunged into silence, but it’s not as heavy as before.

Maybe it’s the sudden uplift in mood that makes Jihoon start again. “Did I do something wrong?”

The suddenness of the question almost makes Seungcheol choke on the drink, and his eyes are watering as he coughs it out, wondering what in the hell is going on. He feels circle rubbing around his back, trying to soothe him, and it helps, if only a little. It takes a few minutes, and even then he’s still coughing, for Seungcheol to look at Jihoon and ask. “Why do you think that?” as he sputters madly.

“First of all? Don’t force yourself to talk when you’re dying. Second, because you’ve been acting weird all day.” The hand on his back stops, and Seungcheol dares to look at Jihoon’s face. It looks regretful, almost… unhappy. “And it’s been around me.”

 

“I…” The cough has faded away now. “I didn’t mean for it to be like that.” 

“Please don’t lie to me Seungcheol,” Jihoon sounds tired. “I know when I do something wrong. Was it the song? Me sleeping in the studio? I know you hate that. What I said during the radio show? Was it-”

“It’s me! Not you.”

“Well, I did, something!” They’re close to yelling now. “What did I do? Seungcheol please-”

“It was this morning!” The drink is tossed somewhere to the side,and he’s standing up now, towering over his friend. He didn’t mean to do this. “Ok?! You looked so goddamn cute in my clothe, and you were sleeping so peacefully and when I saw you I couldn’t stop myself from imagining a life with you that I know I can’t have!” Why does he sound mad? He’s not mad. “And you said the things at the radio station, and it resonated with me, and I couldn’t even begin to believe, but it let me and I just,” Seungcheol finds him staring into a black abyss. Oh wait. No his eyes are just closed. But he doesn’t want to open them right now. He has no idea what he’s going to face when he opens them. He just poured out a long standing crush and it wasn’t even romantic. Hell, he yelled, at his best friend of almost seven years, about loving him for so long. “I just-”

There’s a gentle pressure on his lips, and it’s warm and reassuring, and Seungcheol moves on autopilot, lets himself dream as his arms encircle his waist, and he presses back, just as gently. He feels hands cup his face, and he lets himself go, lets them separate just to see if it was real, that maybe, it wasn’t a dream.

When he does, he see Jihoon standing before him with his hands on Seungcheol’s chin, looking now, in wonder. Instead of regret. It’s a much better look on him. What just happened? 

“You look confused.” Jihoon says, matter of factly.

“I don’t know what just happened.” Seungcheol says back, dazed.

Jihoon quirks an eyebrow at him. “You told me you liked me. I got really happy because I like you back. We kissed. The end.” 

The dark haired boy can feel as his lips shift into a wide smile. “Oh is that it, then?” 

The blond snorts, and pushes the other away. Seungcheol can’t help it. He laughs. “Yeah, well now I’m going to embarrass you by writing a song about it. It’ll be our comeback song too.”  
“Really? I’d be honored to be the subject of our next comeback.”

“WE would be the inspiration, thanks. But nice try.” Jihoon sits down at the computer, trying to hide his face, but in the reflection, he can see him suppressing a smile. Seungcheol’s cheeks redden at it. 

“I’m um, going to clean up the coffee.” He walks out the door, and closes it. He shuts his eyes.

The next time Seungcheol walks in there, Jihoon’s going to be there, with a smile on his face. Maybe they’ll banter. They’ll definitely talk about what just happened.

But it doesn’t change the fact that the impossible has happened.

And Seungcheol can’t stop the smile on his face.


End file.
